The Third Force formally retracts article

The following is a formal retraction of an article posted by The Third Force earlier today, the 29th of April 2018. The said article, the content of which has been reproduced below herein, was fundamentally flawed in that The Third Force neglected to consider the stay that was granted by the High Court on the Registrar of Society’s (RoS) provisional order against Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) pending the disposal of the party’s judicial review bid.

Mahathir issues fake ‘nomination’ letter endorsing “PPBM candidate”

The former premier signed the letter off as PPBM and Pakatan Harapan chairman, meaning, both PPBM and Pakatan are in existence.

But not according to the RoS, which never had Pakatan listed as a coalition entity and no longer has PPBM entered as a legitimate party.

Or have I got it all wrong?

THE THIRD FORCE

The funny thing about the whole Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) de-registration affair isn’t so much the idea that it was planned from the get-go, but the way the man who planned it, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is now pretending the party still exists. It was only three weeks ago that he told us its members would contest the 14th general election (GE14) as “independent candidates” using a logo that was then yet-to-be-determined.

But on Friday, team The Third Force got a hold of this:

Can somebody tell me what’s going on?

Unless the Registrar of Societies (RoS) rescinded its earlier decision not to recognise PPBM or issued a directive we weren’t made aware of, that letter’s as spurious as the idea that Tony Pua is Pope-in-waiting. But then, this is vintage Mahathir we’re talking about, a man who says one thing one minute and does another the very next. It’s like that time we were told that 1.4 million Malaysians signed a Citizens Declaration demanding the removal of Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak from government.

Remember how that worked out?

After weeks of whining that the ruler snubbed him, the grand old man was finally granted an audience, only to turn up at the Palace with a piece of paper bearing 45 signatures. This time, it’s no different – we were told that the RoS wronged PPBM by de-registering the party, but now see this guy signing off as chairman of that very party.

And not to mention, the chairman of Pakatan Harapan, two words that do not appear strung anywhere in the RoS registry. There is just no point in making sense of this fellow, folks. Unless there’s something in the RoS rule-book that escaped me, we’re talking about a passenger of a ship (PKR) who somehow thinks he’s captain and gets to call all the shots.

It’s lunatism to the max.

This coming 9th of May, the country is going to the front.

Having concluded nominations just yesterday, there never was mention of “PPBM candidates,” let alone the idea that Pakatan Harapan exists or had existed at any point in time. Yet, there seems to be an official letter signed by Mahathir – in his capacity as both ‘PPBM’ and ‘Pakatan’ chairman – that ‘endorses’ a “PPBM candidate” for the general election. What this implies, is that both PPBM and Pakatan are legitimately registered entities, meaning, the RoS has been ‘lying’ to us all the while.

Now, can the Director-General of the RoS or the Election Commission (EC) come out to confirm or deny this?